Our final day at Big Sky was predicted to be light snow, but when we got to the hill the top of Lone Peak was visible. Thus we met Steve and Paul and headed up there. The tram line was only about 10 minutes. We skied Marx and once again Liz had cold hands with the wind. This time I was prepared and gave her mittens I had put in my pack when she stopped at the burrito shack. We went back to the tram and had the first walk-on tram in Steve's decade plus of skiing Big Sky. This was no doubt due to the cloud lowering onto the mountain. As we were riding the tram the cloud was at the top of Big Couloir, which is also the top of the North Snowfields I intended to ski with Liz.
We checked in at the Moonlight patrol shack and were assigned an 11:30 start, about a 5 minute wait. Steve wanted to upgrade his ticket and ski with us, but that can only be done at the base area, which would mean at least an hour of turnaround time (ski 3,500 vertical, buy the upgrade, then ride 3 lifts back up), unrealistic with the deteriorating weather.
Liz and I slowly sideslipped down the ridgeline in the fog, which had lowered over the entire run we would ski. The ridge was less rocky than when Patrick and I were there despite 2006 being a big snow year. The North Snowfields have a diagonal fall line which I had skied linking turns and short traverses to stay in the best powder the day before. This time we needed to stay about 10 feet from the rocks on the right border of the run to maintain orientation. Fortunately the wind had smoothed out the snow to a soft consistency that made every turn pleasant even if you couldn't see that well.
At the bottom of the North Snowfields a Moonlight patroller caught up with us and guided us to Rips, where the rock borders provided good definition. Lower Direct was more open but again the snow was so good it skied pretty well despite the tough visibility. If Steve got that run the next day with the same snow but decent vis I'm sure it would have been quite impressive. One pic looking up Lower Direct.
We cruised down to Six Shooter, finally below the fog but in creamy wind deposited snow. Then we went back to Big Sky to meet marketing director Kipp Proctor for a late (1:40 due to our North Snowfields adventure) lunch at the Carabiner in the Summit Hotel. We particularly recommend the wild game chili there. It snowed hard during lunch but let up when we were done close to 3PM.
We took Swift Current and Challenger (meeting Steve and Paul who had been skiing there) to get back to Moonlight. Once again Headwaters was closed so we skied Midnight and Outer Limits near the boundary. The ridge itself is windstripped rocks so we had to traverse carefully and walk across some rocks to enter Moonlight above the top of Six Shooter.
Notice that Liz and I were the only ones creative(?) enough to put tracks into this particular area.
We did that so we could get over to the Lone Tree chair for our last run. We chose Trembler, which starts with a gully filled with the afternoon snow. Lower down on Trembler during a bit of a sunny break.
It was about 4PM and mostly untracked groomer skiing, Moonlight being one of very few places you might get that.
Our final run to Moonlight Lodge was through the Deadwood trees.
Steve had some observations as a long time skier at Big Sky which we passed along to Kipp Proctor. One is that Boyne has not done much in the way of recent lift improvements at Big Sky despite considerable investments at Crystal and Sugarloaf. Kipp observed that Sugarloaf was viewed as a pressing need after the decade of ownership by debt-stressed American Ski Company. He believes that Big SKy will get its turn before too long.
The specific need is relief for the lift lines at the Lone Peak tram. Several years ago a dotted line lift proposal for Liberty Bowl up to the Yeti traverse was on Big Sky's map, but there is concern that the fragile snowpack could be damaged by excessive skier traffic. Kipp and I agreed that the most sensible compromise would be a slow double chair to balance the demand with optimal ski conditions.
We checked in at the Moonlight patrol shack and were assigned an 11:30 start, about a 5 minute wait. Steve wanted to upgrade his ticket and ski with us, but that can only be done at the base area, which would mean at least an hour of turnaround time (ski 3,500 vertical, buy the upgrade, then ride 3 lifts back up), unrealistic with the deteriorating weather.
Liz and I slowly sideslipped down the ridgeline in the fog, which had lowered over the entire run we would ski. The ridge was less rocky than when Patrick and I were there despite 2006 being a big snow year. The North Snowfields have a diagonal fall line which I had skied linking turns and short traverses to stay in the best powder the day before. This time we needed to stay about 10 feet from the rocks on the right border of the run to maintain orientation. Fortunately the wind had smoothed out the snow to a soft consistency that made every turn pleasant even if you couldn't see that well.
At the bottom of the North Snowfields a Moonlight patroller caught up with us and guided us to Rips, where the rock borders provided good definition. Lower Direct was more open but again the snow was so good it skied pretty well despite the tough visibility. If Steve got that run the next day with the same snow but decent vis I'm sure it would have been quite impressive. One pic looking up Lower Direct.
We cruised down to Six Shooter, finally below the fog but in creamy wind deposited snow. Then we went back to Big Sky to meet marketing director Kipp Proctor for a late (1:40 due to our North Snowfields adventure) lunch at the Carabiner in the Summit Hotel. We particularly recommend the wild game chili there. It snowed hard during lunch but let up when we were done close to 3PM.
We took Swift Current and Challenger (meeting Steve and Paul who had been skiing there) to get back to Moonlight. Once again Headwaters was closed so we skied Midnight and Outer Limits near the boundary. The ridge itself is windstripped rocks so we had to traverse carefully and walk across some rocks to enter Moonlight above the top of Six Shooter.
Notice that Liz and I were the only ones creative(?) enough to put tracks into this particular area.
We did that so we could get over to the Lone Tree chair for our last run. We chose Trembler, which starts with a gully filled with the afternoon snow. Lower down on Trembler during a bit of a sunny break.
It was about 4PM and mostly untracked groomer skiing, Moonlight being one of very few places you might get that.
Our final run to Moonlight Lodge was through the Deadwood trees.
Steve had some observations as a long time skier at Big Sky which we passed along to Kipp Proctor. One is that Boyne has not done much in the way of recent lift improvements at Big Sky despite considerable investments at Crystal and Sugarloaf. Kipp observed that Sugarloaf was viewed as a pressing need after the decade of ownership by debt-stressed American Ski Company. He believes that Big SKy will get its turn before too long.
The specific need is relief for the lift lines at the Lone Peak tram. Several years ago a dotted line lift proposal for Liberty Bowl up to the Yeti traverse was on Big Sky's map, but there is concern that the fragile snowpack could be damaged by excessive skier traffic. Kipp and I agreed that the most sensible compromise would be a slow double chair to balance the demand with optimal ski conditions.
